Animal Handling and Identification Worksheet

Introduction to Animal Handling

·      Safe and effective animal handling is crucial to the safety of the handler, the owner and the animal.

·      The way an animal behaves at home may not be the same way he behaves in veterinary facility.

·      When you’re handling an animal at a clinic setting, don't ever put your face in the face of another animal.

·      Understanding the tendencies of animals in the various behavioral states is essential to ensure safe and effective treatment.

·      Another type of animal you might see is a timid or scared animal, these animals will often be in a submissive positions.

Small Animal Handling

·      If Wallace had not gone to Tiffany, she could either have asked his owner to place him on the table or she can slowly approach him from the front, never from behind, and gently lift him up.

·      The next thing that she is going to do to allow me to perform my physical exam and other procedures is to apply firm but gentle pressure on him.

·      A towel can be used to decrease their anxietyf on a slippery table and it can also be used to help restrain their legs.

·      A net those can be used for very _____fractious________ cats or wild animals.

Large Animal Handling

·      You want to always approach horses on their left side.

·      A lot of these horses are comfortable following somebody through the stocks.

·      A twitch, this is one thing we use a lot of when we are trying to restrain these horses for a short period of time.

·      As we talk about methods of restraint in cattle, we are using a manual squeeze chute.

·      Another restraint we use in cattle is a nose tungprecution, again it really anchors the end of that nose and limits the ability to swing and move their head.

Introduction to Animal Identification

·      For pets, proper identification is the most important precaution to find a lost animal.

·      While there are numerous marking systems to identify animals there are a few that are most common.

·      For pets, the most common forms of identification are ID tags and microchips.

·      The advantages of microchipping is that it is permanent and it can be read by wide variety of locations.

·      Tattooing in small animal practice is primarily used by shelters and purebred breeders.

·      For swine, ear notching is the most common method of identification.

·      For cattle, the most common methods of identification are ear tagging, tattooing and hot iron branding.

·      This is an official USDA tag, indicates that this heifer has been vaccinated for brucellosis.

·      We are using an electric iron, some people just use a metal iron heated with fire to generate the heat in the iron.

·      We use iron especially made for freeze branding, most of these are made of copper alloy irons and are either chilled in liquid nitrogen or dry ice.